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Five States File Federal Lawsuit Against Owners of Three Power Plants in Pennsylvania

Posted on: Tuesday, 5 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey recently filed a federal lawsuit, charging that the corporate owners of three large coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania have violated the Clean Air Act. Some of the plants have been operating since the 1950s with inadequate air pollution controls.

The power plants are owned by Allegheny Energy, Inc. and its subsidiaries. While major upgrades have been made to improve the plants' power-producing capacity, their owners have allegedly failed to install modern pollution controls as required by law. As a result, the plants emit thousands of tons of air pollution each year. That pollution causes smog and acid rain in Pennsylvania communities and nearby downwind states.

Extensive documentation turned over to the states by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed the power plant owners violated the New Source Review provision of the Clean Air Act. Despite having developed cases against the power plants for ongoing Clean Air Act violations, the federal government has not brought enforcement actions.

Pollution from these coal-fired power plants operating without adequate emission controls harms the public health and the environment in New York and other states, said New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzter. It is fair and right to hold these plants accountable to the law.

The enforcement lawsuit against Allegheny was given a boost by a recent decision by the District of Columbia federal Circuit Court of Appeals. That case found unconvincing an argument from the power industry that only an increase in the hourly emission rate, as opposed to an increase in actual annual pollution, would trigger the Clean Air Act's pollution control requirement.

The Pennsylvania coal-fired plants that are the subject of the clean air suit are:

* Armstrong, Armstrong County, 34,141 tons of SOx Emissions and 3,976 tons of NOx emissions;

* Hatfield's Ferry, Greene County, 139,424 tons of SOx emissions and 17,643 tons of NOx emissions; and

* Mitchell, Washington County, 1,483 tons of SOx emissions and 2,279 tons of NOx emissions.

Source: Daily Record (Rochester, NY)

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